Training Doctors about Dissociation

In this video from the CTAD Clinic, Dr Mike Lloyd (Clinic Director) feeds back from a conference in Romania last week where he presented about dissociation to the medical students of the IMSCB (International Medical Students Congress of Bucharest).
Mike has taken this experience to consider and start planning for a training schedule in 2024 which will include webinar training for doctors about the field of dissociation. Please keep an eye on the training part of our website for details!

#dissociation

[Themaskedprincess]

This is sorely needed. I had to give up on getting any treatment on the NHS and do not mention DID at all when I have to go to medical appointments. Disbelief, prejudice and outright abuse from professionals meant treatment caused me more harm than healing!

[brittanywilcox]

I'm so glad you're talking about this! I watch a lot of videos but Dr. Grande (he does true crime analysis and he's a psychologist) and I'm always so upset anytime he talks about DID. He says it's not real and that there's no research about it. He says a lot of untrue things about it. I've told him to watch your channel, but ofc it falls on deaf ears

[jazminebellx]

This is the type of thing that changes the world. I haven't felt so much hope about what the future would look like when more people are trained in this field, for a very long time. Thank you for everything that you all do at your clinic, offering this training is massive.

[taurath]

I'm very fortunate that I am comfortable enough with my doctor to inform her about my having DID - I have to keep it off of my chart though because there are so many uninformed people. I find PTSD to be a much more medically accepted dx to work with.

[indigo.and.dissociation]

Strangely enough, although they may not have a full understanding, medical doctors (psyc liason, A&E and GP) have been the ones who have been more open to understanding or at least trying to meet us where we are. It is the mental health professionals (including psychologists) who we have had most trouble with. We have had some amazing MH and psychology support, but more recently have had the complete opposite experience. As well as increasing awareness amongst professionals, I think it is important that professionals arent afraid to ask questions to learn more from their patients/clients, especially in cases where systems have a decent knowledge and understanding of their condition and/or their system.

[sean]

Thank you for your video on integration and fusion. Very helpful. If a person had alters for years and each time they switched, the person had no memory of that ( lost time), and suddenly they started remembering things the other alters were doing, and even talking to the other alters, are they coming together? What could this mean? And by the way, the video on birdsong was very uplifting and sweet. It's like God gives us beautiful things in nature to brighten our day.

[RY]

Dear Mike, thank you for your videos and talking about all this. I think it is great to educate around dissociation and trauma. And to doctors so that’s great. I think what people including doctors ‘disbelieve ‘ or struggle with around this whole area is the idea that there around different people living in a persons head which to many is a believe system or a delusion not to say dissociation and dissociative conditions do not exist it is the way it is presented and propagated that I think is debated and so it should be in my view. You are in a position of power here and have an opportunity to educate what is know ie actual good science and what is merely concepts/ theories or beliefs people have. When I was in therapy with a DID specialist this person kept referring to ‘she’ meaning another aspect/part of me. The therapist talked about parts of myself like they different people not me when I came to therapy. I never thought of myself as different people. I had a dissociative condition though and that person had diagnosed me as such. I reject that concept not through my own denial, I just never thought of myself like that nor do I understand that or believe in it. We only have one body, I was disconnected from parts of myself and my body due to trauma. It’s been a slow journey to reconnect. in therapy I really felt like I wanted to fit into what the therapists model was and come up with stuff that would please them ( I am trying to reform my people pleasing habits) however I was strong enough at that point to reject aspects though that was hard as there they were as the expert. They did stop using their own terminology and way of thinking like that in relation to me and then let me decide how I wanted to see myself and what language I wanted to use.

We have to remember that books that are written by experts and models and theories are just that. I do believe the current presentation of DID has been co-created by therapists and clients and that narrative was pushed online by influencers. Another therapist later I spoke to who was originally a client ( her ex therapist encourage her to do it) said to me she thought Sybil was a fantastic example of what the mind will do. It is accepted that the multiple personality aspects of Sybil was made up ( the different people ) a therapist profited here and there was huge dependancy where the client would have said anything as the therapist was like her drug. To propagate the story of Sybil as a truth is damaging in my view. Not that you are doing that I am just giving an example of why there is doubt and harm here which therapists have been part of. A lot of therapists have done a lot of good and I believe you are and also the therapist I saw too though aspects of his believes were suspect in my view treating one person like many people which I felt I had to push against which was hard.
And online issues. An online influencer even admitted purposefully doing child like ‘speak’ / language online as that’s what others were doing. A lot of fitting in. I am not wanted to shame here merely point out phenomena. If you have a shaky sense of self which I did then you very susceptible to things.

I would like to bring it back to the science and some common sense not that we cannot respect beliefs or what happens to please or fit in.
Just my theory and opinions which are as valid as any! And as my ex therapist used to say.. and I could be wrong. We all can be.

[Jennifer-oqzj]

Thank you for this positive message. Most people in health care that I have come across have little, no or distorted knowledge of dissociative disorders.
One the doesn’t appear to like eye contact! Maybe he thinks he’ll catch it 🤣 I had a pre op anaesthetic appointment that I was dreading. He was above and beyond in his awareness. Could your training sessions be suitable for other health professionals as well as GPs? I have input for my mental heath conditions including diagnosed DID a variety of professions. Social workers, police etc.

[mksparrow]

I currently have a family practice PA who takes care of my physical needs. He is also aware of my DID and watches some of my videos. My question is this: even though he is not a mental health profession, can I give him the "online" discussions about disassociate issues? My PA is the only health professional that I trust.

[claudiaburger]

Good news! Are the webinars intended for doctors? Or can a psychologist also participate? One from the Netherlands?

a topic suggestion:
the OSDD as it manifests itself to me, it is only internal, like a kind of voices without audible sound, but the different intonations can be felt. Could you make a video about that? Parts that want or don't want something, things that you are not allowed to do or especially not allowed to say. trying to protect you, but in a way that doesn't actually help.

[struthyruth]

I really hope that up and coming doctors really do take a interest in DID . My GP dosnt under it and cant even put a diagnosis of DID or CPTSD in the my records as the system hasn't a code for those diagnosis. Its taken a long time to finally get a diagnosis but not on records to explain to other health professionals

[zusterMalikaLithgowIslam]

A lot of care takers or doctors think that dissociation is just a fancy word for panic attacks. They don’t have a clue and don’t know the difference. Maybe you can make a video about that ❤️‍🩹 so a lot af patiënts just stop telling the doctors they have did.